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My creative week - hopes are sky high!

I've decided to blog periodically about my creative week as I know I find an insight into creative people's processes and activities really interesting!Monday 13th November 2017(I travelled down to London on 8th November. As part of my work for the London Jewellery School I need to spend two days a month in the office there and when I go I usually do some teaching too.)

Stone setting in metal clay samples from class at the London Jewellery School

Today I taught Stone setting in metal clay to one of the Diploma in Creative Jewellery groups at the London Jewellery School. It was good fun, we set glass, bezel set a stone and dry set a fireable stone.Then I was off on the train back home! The train from London to Edinburgh takes around 4 hours 20 minutes and when there's an offer on I travel first class! I went first class today and had a lovely veggie risotto on board!Tuesday 14th November 2017I needed a bit of a rest day but in the evening I was working on a webinar for Jewellery School Online. It was a free webinar on preparing your jewellery business for christmas run by my boss Jessica Rose. I was doing support on the chat, dealing with any technical problems (thankfully not many!) and questions that arise so Jess can get on with her talk. It went very well.

Wednesday 15th November 2017I am a member of a Creative Entrepreneurs group which has been so fantastic for me. We meet once a month and talk about our achievements for the month and then set goals for the coming month. Through this group I have started working with the Arienas Collective and will be teaching sessions for them in the coming weeks. This evening there was a meeting of the group at the Arienas Collective and it was so great. One of the things that can be difficult as an artist, or anyone self-employed, is that it can be very isolating. It was really inspiring to meet more artists based in Edinburgh who all had a similar mindset, it felt great.

Thursday 16th November 2017Today I saw in an email that there was a desk space available at 3 Hill Street Design House in Edinburgh! This has been my ideal place to get a desk/studio space since I visited for a Creative Edinburgh event a couple of months ago as it's a lovely location, close to home and also in the centre of Edinburgh so excellent for teaching. BUT there were no spaces available and one would only become available if someone left. So I was really excited that I might get the chance to get this much-coveted space. I messaged and was able to visit the space on Thursday. Friday 17th November 2017I went along to visit 3 Hill Street Design House and loved it (as I knew I would) and with a small amount of anxiety I asked the price! I'd had a price in my mind that I could go up to and thankfully (it was Thanksgiving yesterday after all!) the price was under that! Phew! So I told Hazel, who deals with managing the space, that I was definitely 100% interested, please please please! But tried to be a bit more cool about it. I may not have succeeded! And then I waited. I decided not to bombard her with annoying emails, who wants to share a space with someone needy? But I kept waiting to hear from her. I knew the desk space would be popular so I just had to hope that I'd made a good first impression.

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